E6 (mathematics)

DISPLAYTITLE:E6 (mathematics) In mathematics, E6 is the name of some closely related Lie groups, linear algebraic groups or their Lie algebras , all of which have dimension 78; the same notation E6 is used for the corresponding root lattice, which has rank 6. The designation E6 comes from the Cartan–Killing classification of the complex simple Lie algebras (see ). This classifies Lie algebras into four infinite series labeled An, Bn, Cn, Dn, and five exceptional cases labeled E6, E7, E8, F4, and G2. The E6 algebra is thus one of the five exceptional cases. The fundamental group of the complex form, compact real form, or any algebraic version of E6 is the cyclic group Z/3Z, and its outer automorphism group is the cyclic group Z/2Z. Its fundamental representation is 27-dimensional (complex), and a basis is given by the 27 lines on a cubic surface. The dual representation, which is inequivalent, is also 27-dimensional. In particle physics, E6 plays a role in some grand unified theories. There is a unique complex Lie algebra of type E6, corresponding to a complex group of complex dimension 78. The complex adjoint Lie group E6 of complex dimension 78 can be considered as a simple real Lie group of real dimension 156. This has fundamental group Z/3Z, has maximal compact subgroup the compact form (see below) of E6, and has an outer automorphism group non-cyclic of order 4 generated by complex conjugation and by the outer automorphism which already exists as a complex automorphism. As well as the complex Lie group of type E6, there are five real forms of the Lie algebra, and correspondingly five real forms of the group with trivial center (all of which have an algebraic double cover, and three of which have further non-algebraic covers, giving further real forms), all of real dimension 78, as follows: The compact form (which is usually the one meant if no other information is given), which has fundamental group Z/3Z and outer automorphism group Z/2Z.